Here it is! Abbey’s Year video!! I don’t think I got around to doing one last year, but we have several older ones on our YouTube channel. It’s amazing to see how far she has come! She’s happier than ever, communicating more than ever and is really getting the hang of going new places and trying new things!

Celebrate with us as we look back and see how we have helped Abbey learn and grow!

Abbey is working on a reading curriculum at school called Edmark and seems to be doing well, so I thought it would be good if I could do something over Christmas break to keep working on her reading and spelling.

I googled Edmark and found some great stuff to print out at home, to work on her words at home. She’s actually on words 11-20 right now, but I know that there are a lot of other words she is reading and can spell, this is just a way to keep track, let her show us what she knows and work on words that she doesn’t know…but especially work on her typing words into her communicating app, hopeful that this will lead to more communication!

Here’s a video of us working on the stuff I printed out, just day one! I’ll try to do some more videos as we do more.

P.S. I found the printable on a site called http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/. Some were free and some were a few dollars. They have all of the Edmark words to work on in many different ways. They have lots of great stuff!:)

Abbey is truly starting to anticipate parts of Christmas!! She’s looking in her stocking often, wondering when the day will come. We’re marking off dates on the calendar, heading towards that big circled day…wondering if she’s understanding that, or not?? She visited Santa, not too impressed still, but pressed Santa on her iPad and after a bit of prompting told him ‘thank you’ for coming over to see her.:) Her favorite button? CANDY CANE, of course! Some of these buttons go to a set of Melissa & Doug wooden Christmas cookies. He behavior specialist plays with this set with her and uses these buttons.

Pretty cool, we’ve got a Halloween folder also now and she knows how to use it…now, working on Christmas! Making communicating fun and meaningful for her is so rewarding. That moment when she opens up those new folders that you’ve made and spontaneously uses one or more of the buttons, such a wonderful moment!!

Abbey’s an artist, well, kind of. It all started with her caregiver coloring and Abbey tried to copy what she was coloring. Then…she was hooked. She is sitting coloring, and coloring, and coloring now! We’re going on Day 3 of lots and lots of coloring. She does repetitive patterns unless you color something on another piece of paper, then, she will try to copy what you have drawn, well, sometimes.:)

This is a new thing for her. Years ago, when she learned how to do an “A”, we had A’s all over the house, on books, walls and even her own legs. When she learned circles, we had circles all over everything. So, we’ve got progress, she’s mostly staying on paper, just going over the edges onto the table.:)
Click on the video below and see if you can catch her line pattern.:)

It’s so amazing to watch your child who struggles to learn, to pick up things so quickly, but I’ll tell you what is even more amazing to me…seeing her happy doing it, smiling, looking like she’s proud of herself. The other thing that just makes my heart smile is seeing her relationship with her behavior specialist, you can tell, Abbey just loves her! She looks at her, she references her, she plays with her (what is she gonna do when I put the wrong one down? Smiles:) and she enjoys her time with her. She’s not always easy to get to work, even when it’s fun, when she’s tired or grumpy…but we all have those days and that’s ok! We’ll take what we can get! Abbey is obviously having fun here, that’s key! Whether it’s the velcro, the stickers, playing with her specialist, or all of the above…whatever works, it’s important to keep trying new ways, new things until you find something that works and that’s a gift that her specialist has.

Now, in a perfect world, all of my friends could have people in their lives like Abbey’s team…something I long for, pray for and work as hard as I can to see them have! If you need help finding help, please let me know! I don’t know all the answers, but I know where to look for them…..from way too many years of searching!

Proud of you Abbey, you GO GIRL!!

Click on the video below to see her with her behavior specialist in action:

It took her the entire week, but she finally seems to have adjusted to the time change!

Whew, what a week!

What a difference that one little hour makes! Usually Abbey adjusts so well to change, and it took me a couple of days to figure out what the actual problem was. Abbey doesn’t know how to tell time, but we’ve always known, for years, that she has some kind of internal clock. When there is something that always happens at the same time, she starts sensing when it’s supposed to happen. So, when the clocks rolled back an hour, she got up Monday morning and even though I tried to tell her that she had school, when the time came and went, she thought she was staying home. We had 4 grumpy, “I’m not going to school” days in a row because of this! She likes to stay home, but knows she needs to go to school, so if there’s a chance to stay home and then you take it away…watch out! She saw her chance and I kept taking it away!:(

So, solution for future dilemma’s like this?? My home team worked on a visual for Abbey to know whether it is school or not. I’ll share when it’s done, if it’s helping her.:) We’re hoping this will also give her a meaningful way to understand the days of the week and understand the calendar that she practices every day!